I recommend you read at least the comment thread which follows it. Collectively, they say, ‘Women – take responsibility for yourselves!!!’ I imagine most or even all such comments will be ‘pulled’, as will mine – the New Statesman has pulled many of my comments in the past. Mine is a somewhat calmer contribution than many others in this comment thread:

“Maybe – just maybe – women are more interested than men in their appearance (and therefore their weight) because women get a far higher return on attractiveness than men, e.g. attracting and retaining better-off partners? If that’s unfair, it’s arguably a damned sight more unfair on men than women.

All humans have stark choices:

1. Consume more calories than you expend, and gain weight.

2. Consume fewer calories than you expend, and lose weight.

3. Consume the same calories as you expend, and maintain weight.

Young women need to do what everyone else has to do, to take responsibility for themselves. Putting a female spin on the issue of obesity is whining, and weight stories should be directed to Laura Bates’s ‘Everyday Whining Project’ which has – ironically – a limitless appetite for such nonsense.

Will women never stop infantilising women – both others, and themselves?